Steps Forward in Mobile Technology: Expanding the Vocabulary of Touchsceen Input and Immersive Simulation of Visual Impairments

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Authors

Ates, Halim C.

Issue Date

2014

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Thesis

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accessibility testing , magnetic fingerprint , touch input , touch-screen , visual impairment , wearable computing

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Abstract

I explored two different areas in the field of mobile technology for this thesis: mobile touch interaction and immersive visual impairment simulation.Magnetic fingerprints is a new magnetic input technique for mobile touch devices. A small magnet is attached to a user's finger, where the magnet's orientation is used to define unique magnetic fingerprints. Using a device's magnetometer, touches made with a particular magnetic fingerprint can be distinguished from a non-instrumented finger. Magnetic fingerprints can also be used as part of a multitouch gestures; which significantly increases the current touch vocabulary. User studies investigate the accuracy of magnetic fingerprint recognition in relation to magnet size, number of magnetic fingerprints used; and size of the touchscreen. Studies found this technique to be limited to using up to two fingerprints nonsimultaneously, though it achieves a high classification accuracy (95%) and doubles the number of (multi) touch events.SIMVIZ is an immersive visual impairment visualization tool. Simulation of a visual impairment may lead to a better understanding of how individuals with visual impairments perceive the world around them and could be useful as a tool for interface designers to identify accessibility barriers. Current simulation tools suffer from a number of limitations, pertaining cost, accuracy and immersion. We present a simulation tool (SIMVIZ) that mounts a wide angle camera on a headmounted display to create a see-through stereoscopic display to simulate various types and levels of visual impairments. A qualitative user study evaluates the immersiveness, usability and effectiveness of SIMVIZ versus using a smartphone based simulator.

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